Thursday Thirteen

Today I'm going to talk about guitars. I've been playing the guitar since I was around 12, but I have gone through long spells of not playing at all. Sometimes years. Then I pick it back up and play a while. However, I do not play as well as I once did because I don't practice.

There are many brands and types of guitars. No one likes the same thing, and everyone has a different opinion as to what is best. I think you get what you pay for in a guitar, generally, and so the more money you can put into an instrument, the better the quality of sound as well as ease of play. You can buy guitars from $100 to $10,000 and up.

In my dotage, I prefer a small-bodied acoustic guitar (which seem to be difficult to find in my area). I have back problems and the larger dreadnaught body acoustic guitars are hard for me to handle. Electric guitars, too, no longer interest me because they are too heavy for me to hold.

You can click the links to find out more about the guitar brands if you want.

1. Gibson. I learned to play on a small Gibson (I don't remember what style), and I think highly of Gibsons, particularly with higher end models. Gibson is famous for its Les Paul brand, an electric guitar that most musicians play at one time or another. If I were going to purchase a new guitar, I think I would like the Gibson L-00, a 12-fret red spruce limited edition small-body guitar (priced at $2,799). However, I've not had my hands on one and I won't make such a purchase without playing the instrument first. Gibson has been around since 1902.

2. Yamaha. I have a small bodied Yamaha FG-150 that my grandfather gave to me in 1981. The guitar needs a new set of tuner keys and new strings and it's pretty beat up. Yamaha has been around since the late 1880s, but it has been in the US since about 1960.

3. Takamine. The guitar I play the most these days is a classical Takamine that I purchased myself about 25 years ago. (I can't believe I've had that guitar that long.) It has excellent sound quality and I get a lot out of it for what it is. It is a mid-line guitar, not the best, but not the worst, either. Takamine has been around since 1959.

4. Alvarez. I took my nephew guitar shopping about 8 years ago and he chose an Alvarez to take to college with him. I don't know if he ever really learned to play it or if he even still has it. Alvarez has been around since 1965.

5. Gretsch. My father had a big orange Gretsch electric guitar. It was huge and much too large for me to play. Gretsch has also been around since the 1880s.

6. Taylor. I had never heard of this guitar until I saw a youtube video of a girl playing one. I loved the sound of it. I wouldn't mind having one of these little beauties. They can be incredibly expensive, running in the $9,000 range, although Taylor has a little GS Mini guitar for about $600 that I would like to see up close and personal one of these days.

7. Martin. To be honest, I don't know of anyone who doesn't love a Martin and think it's one of the better guitar brands out there. I would certainly like to have one (apparently I want them all, don't I?). Martins appear to have been around forever, at least from the timeline on the website. It starts in the 1700s!

8. Epiphone. My parents gave me an electric Epiphone in 1977 and I still have it and always will even though I can't hold it anymore to play it. It looks exactly like a Les Paul and frankly it plays better than some Les Paul's I've played. Epiphone has been making instruments since the 1870s.

9. Ovation. Ovation guitars used to be rounded back and plastic, or at least the one I owned was. I traded it on the Takamine because I couldn't hold on to it to play it. Ovation has been around since 1966. I haven't seen a new Ovation in years but from the look of the website, the guitars have changed quite a lot.

10. Fender. The Fender Stratocaster is a famous model of electric guitar, probably second only to the Gibson Les Paul (in my opinion) in terms of playability. Buddy Holly played a Stratocaster.

11. Ibanez. I have never been a fan of Ibanez, but all guitars deserve a second look every now and then. They've been around since 1958.

12. Guild. This is not a guitar brand I'm overly familiar with, but I noticed some of the local dealers are carrying it. They've been around since 1952. The acoustic guitars look nice in the pictures. Next time I'm in a store I will have to play one and see how they sound.

13. Blueridge. This is another brand that I've seen in the local stores. I've played one a time or two and thought they were okay for a lower-end model. I am seeing more and more of them, though. Apparently they are built by a company called Saga, which has been around for about 35 years.



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Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while and this is my 408th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.